Company Profile
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra
Company Overview
PHILHARMONIA BAROQUE ORCHESTRA & CHORALE
The New York Times calls PBO, “America’s leading historically-informed ensemble.” Under the musical direction of Nicholas McGegan for the past 33 years, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale (PBO) is recognized as America’s leading historically informed ensemble. Using authentic instruments and stylistic conventions of the Baroque to early-Romantic periods, the orchestra engages audiences through its signature Bay Area series, national tours, recordings, commissions, and education projects of the highest standard.
Founded in the San Francisco Bay Area 38 years ago, the ensemble is the largest of its kind in the United States and is known for its versatility in programming and joyful performances.
Company History
The Philharmonia Chorale has been led by Bruce Lamott for 22 years and is considered one of the gems of the Bay Area. PBO’s musicians are among the best in the country and serve on the faculties of
The Juilliard School, Harvard, and Stanford, among others. The Orchestra performs an annual subscription season in four venues throughout the San Francisco Bay Area as well as the orchestra’s popular alternative concert series for younger and new audiences—PBO SESSIONS – that regularly sold performances out since its inception in 2014.
In April 2017, PBO performed the modern-day premiere of Rameau’s “Le Temple de la Gloire.”
The fully-staged opera included an international cast of singers and dancers and celebrated soldout audiences and critical acclaim from around the world.
Each season welcomes eminent guest artists such as mezzo-sopranos Susan Graham and Anne Sofie von Otter, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, violoncellist Steven Isserlis, fortepianist Emanuel Ax, and maestros Jordi Savall and Richard Egarr. The Orchestra enjoys numerous collaborations, including an
ongoing partnership with the Mark Morris Dance Group and tours regularly to venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Tanglewood, and Yale’s Norfolk Chamber Festival. In July 2017, PBO coproduced the critically-acclaimed modern adaptation of “Aci, Galatea e Polifemo” in partnership with Anthony Roth Costanzo and National Sawdust in Brooklyn.
Among the most recorded orchestras in the world, PBO boasts a discography of more than 40 recordings and launched its own label in 2011, on which it has released ten recordings, including a coveted archival performance of mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson in Berlioz’s “Les Nuits D’été,” and a Grammy-nominated recording of Haydn symphonies. The orchestra released a recording of its modern North American premiere of Alessandro “Scarlatti’s La Gloria di Primavera,” which coincided with a tour in May 2016 and released the world premiere recording of the original version of Rameau's “Le Temple de la
Gloire” with the unedited libretto by Voltaire in July 2018.
In 2015, Philharmonia launched its Jews & Music Initiative—a permanent effort to explore and understand the relationship between Jews and music from the 17th to the 21st centuries. The initiative offers a deep exploration of the role of Jews and non-Jews in the creation of classical music and provides opportunities for
significant collaboration with SFJCC, the Jewish Contemporary Museum, Oshman JCC, and The Magnes Collection at UC Berkeley, among others. In 2016, Harvard and Yale universities invited PBO to present “Jews of the 17th Century Italian Jewish Ghetto” featuring works by Salomone Rossi and Monteverdi.
The program was reprised at the University of Chicago in April 2018 and was deemed “shimmering….stylish, precise and expressive” by the Chicago Times. In 2018, PBO produced “Jewish Songlines”, an immersive concert that included works from Benedetto Marcello to Ravel.
PBO launched its New Music for Old Instruments initiative in 2016 as an effort to commission and perform new works written expressly for period instruments. Recent commissions include a co-commission with London’s Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with composer Sally Beamish, two works by Pulitzer Prizewinning composer Caroline Shaw, the first piece composed for mezzo-soprano Anne-Sofie von Otter that enjoyed its world premiere at Walt Disney Concert Hall in April 2016 followed by the second piece in the song cycle for soprano Dominique Labelle in 2017.
The third and final work in the song cycle premiered at Lincoln Center in 2019. Additionally, PBO commissioned “To Hell and Back” by Guggenheim Fellow Jake Heggie. Future seasons will bring major commissions by Caroline Shaw, Matthew Aucoin, and Mason Bates. The Orchestra can be heard during its monthly radio broadcast on KDFC, now seven years running.
To nurture the next generation of musicians, Philharmonia, and The Juilliard School’s Historical Performance division has established a permanent collaboration, which includes annual residencies in the Bay Area and New York with masterclasses, coaching, and side-by-side performances.
The organization is supported by 22 board members who reside in the Bay Area, New York and Seattle. Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra was founded by harpsichordist and early music pioneer Laurette Goldberg.
Music Director when Nicholas McGegan steps down at the end of the 19/20 season. Richard Egarr has been named Music Director Designate.